Library · The History of the Reformation in Scotland (Works, vol. 1)
Part 4
The History of the Reformation in Scotland (Works, vol. 1) · John Knox
[SN: 1564.]
March. Knox married to his second wife, Margaret Stewart, daughter of Andrew Lord Ochiltree.
June 30. He was appointed by the General Assembly to visit the churches in Aberdeen and the North of Scotland. The following Assembly, 26th of December, gave him a similar appointment for Fife and Perthshire.
[SN: 1565.]
Knox was summoned before the Privy Council, on account of a sermon which, on the 19th of August, he had preached in St. Giles's Church.
[SN: 1566.]
In this year he appears to have written the most considerable portion of his History of the Reformation; having commenced the work in 1559 or 1560.
In consequence of the unsettled state of public affairs, after the murder of David Riccio, 9th of March, Knox left Edinburgh, and retired for a time to Kyle.
June 19. James the Sixth was born in the Castle of Edinburgh.
December. Knox obtained permission from the General Assembly to proceed to England, having received from the English Government a safeconduct, to visit his two sons, who were residing with some of their mother's relations.
[SN: 1567.]
February 10. Henry Lord Darnley was murdered.
April 24. Bothwell carried off Queen Mary to the Castle of Dunbar; and their marriage was celebrated on the 15th of May.
June 15. Bothwell fled from Carberry-hill to Dunbar; and the Queen was brought to Edinburgh, and afterwards confined in Lochleven Castle. About the same time, Knox returned from England.
July 29. At the King's Coronation at Stirling, Knox preached an inaugural sermon on these words, "I was crowned young."
August 22. James Earl of Murray was appointed Regent of Scotland.
December 15. Knox preached at the opening of Parliament; and on the 20th, the Confession of Faith, which had been framed and approved by Parliament in 1560, with various Acts in favour of the Reformed religion, was solemnly ratified.
[SN: 1568.]
May 2. Queen Mary escaped from Lochleven; but her adherents, who had assembled at Langside, being defeated, she fled into England, and was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth for the rest of her life; having been beheaded at Fotheringay on the 8th of February 1586-7.
[SN: 1569.]
January 23. The Earl of Murray was assassinated at Linlithgow; and on occasion of his funeral, Knox preached a sermon on these words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." (Rev. xiv. 13.)
[SN: 1570.]
July 12. Matthew Earl of Lennox was elected Regent of Scotland; but was assassinated on the 4th of September. On the following day, John Earl of Mar was chosen Regent.
October. Knox had a stroke of apoplexy, but was enabled occasionally to resume his ministerial labours.
[SN: 1571.]
May 5. The troubles which then agitated the country induced Knox to quit the metropolis, and to retire to St. Andrews.
September. The news arrived of the massacre of the Protestants on St. Bartholomew's Eve, 24th of August, at Paris, and in other parts of France.
[SN: 1572.]
July. On the cessation of hostilities, at the end of this month, a deputation from the citizens of Edinburgh was sent to St. Andrews, with a letter to Knox, expressive of their earnest desire "that once again his voice might be heard among them." He returned in August, having this year published, at St. Andrews, his Answer to Tyrie the Jesuit.
The Earl of Mar died on the 29th of October; and James Earl of Morton, on the 24th of November, was elected Regent of Scotland.